The Donkey Egg by Janet Stevens - OPTIONAL

The Donkey Egg by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. PICTURE BOOK. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019. $18. 9780547327679

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3) - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW

A bear is sold a watermelon with the promise that it is a donkey egg. The bear takes care of the “egg” with extreme dedication and ignores the taunts of his neighbors who assure him it is not an egg. In the end, when the watermelon smashes, the bear uses the seeds to plant a field and uses the new watermelons to sell and earn money to buy a donkey.

This story was quite long and slow. The text and illustrations felt old fashioned and didn’t hold my kids’ attention for very long. The structure of the story does repeat and could potentially lend itself to a lesson on predictions.

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher